Mar 18 Keith

Keith: I got injured about two years ago. I’m a diabetic. I was working a job and I dropped a board and cut my foot. It got worse and they had to do surgery and amputate my small toe. That was traumatic. I’m used to working. And then fighting disability… I lost all my income. It’s been a struggle. When you’re out by yourself, the government really don’t help you.

BW: What kind of work did you do?

Keith: I worked security. I used to work at the Sears Tower in Chicago. I worked for the city of Chicago in their libraries. I’ve worked all my life until this. Man, I used to run track, play football, I’ve been in the military.

BW: So, you can’t get disability?

Keith: Not so far… it’s not just my foot either. I suffer from asthma, epilepsy, diabetes. People think it’s just a foot and you can still do something but when you have epilepsy, most jobs aren’t gonna hire you. Even if you take medication for epilepsy, you can have an episode. They don’t want to take a chance on you hurting someone or yourself.

I’ll tell you, the hardest thing is staying by yourself when you suffer from epilepsy. Even though you take medication, you may not wake up. Same with diabetes. It’s not so much your levels going high as your levels going low. Diabetic coma is real. It’s a serious thing. It’s tough If you stay by yourself and nobody’s checking in on you.